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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0066.PDF
22 JANUARY II, 1940. able to reach their objectives without excessive casualties. In this issue we publish some speculations concerning the form which the escort fighter might take. There are several possibilities, and the merits and drawbacks of each of these purely hypothetical machines are examined in turn For long-range work the most satisfactory type appears to be a machine similar in its main character- istics to a bomber and well supplied with turreted arma- ment and ammunition. Such machines might fly as units in a formation and in company with powerfully armed bombers and would be able to put up a strong resistance to mass attacks by fighters. Aircraft of the type in mind would require only the speed of the bombers to be escorted, but it would be advantageous to evolve faster long-range "turret" fighters, not primarily for escort work but for engaging raiding bombers at a distance from our shores. A'eu Power PlantsO NE of our readers has been so fired by enthusiasm after reading the articles by Mr. Fedden and Mr. Elliott that he has set to work on trying to visual- ise what future engine types may be required. His ideas are set forth on p. 39. It will be seen that he agrees with Mr. ^Elliott concerning the V-12 type of liquid-cooled engine for powers up to about 2,000 b.h.p., but that above this he considers the H-type liquid-cooled the most promising class. Here he disagrees with Mr. Fedden, who stated in his article that the problems of air-cooling the high-powered engine of H-formation were no greater than those of indirect cooling via a liquid. Whether one agrees with our correspondent or with Mr. Fedden or with Mr. Elliott, the one thing which appears to emerge is that nothing like finality in design has vet been reached. While this fact may distress those who are thinking mainly in terms of mass-produc- tion, it will be welcomed by the serious student of <^ero engine design. Just think how dull it would be if we discovered that we could do with one type of engine in all our different classes of aircraft, merely by using one, two, three, four or even six of it! OutputS OME interesting speculations concerning America's contribution to the aircraft production of the Allies are published in the latest issue of the New York journal Life. The author, Major G. F. Eliot, comes to the conclusion that something like a total of 4,000 air- craft will be built for the Allies during 1940. He bases his estimates on the best available American sources, and thinks that by the end of this year American aircraft constructors will have completed 1,530 military aircraft and 815 trainers for Great Britain. The corresponding figures for the deliveries to France are 1,660 and 370 respectively. Major Eliot also examines the probable effect on the course of the war of these deliveries. Germany, he con- cludes, can only hope to win by establishing superiority in the air._ .The American contribution will not give the Allies superiority in numbers until the autumn of this year. Thus, he argues, Germany must make any stroke for victory which she intends to make in the spring of this year. _ Otherwise she will be too late. While admitting that Major Eliot's figures may be somewhat in error, his estimates are probably not widely inaccurate. But he cannot possibly have any exact knowledge of the rate at which the Allies have increased their rate of production, and therefore his estimate of the exact time by which the Allies will have reached or ex- ceeded Germany's production must be open to doubt. PLEASANT SURROUNDINGS. Airspeed Oxfords flying over typical New Zealand scenery.Zealand Air Force appears on pp. f-h. An article on the Royal New
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